INCENTIVES MATTER
By Pete Moore On February 7th, 2013George Osborne has granted a tax amnesty to overseas athletes competing in this summer’s London Grand Prix in the Olympic Stadium to ensure that Usain Bolt takes centre stage on the anniversary of the Olympic opening ceremony.
Who knew that people changed their behaviour in response to incentives? Congratulations to the athletes, who will perform the real public service of giving fans what they want without the savage beast confiscating the usual enormous chunk of their income.
How large? The Treasury is in the habit of not just taxing income made from tournaments in this country, but also a percentage of worldwide earnings too. Usain Bolt and others said “up yours” to that and haven’t been here outside of the Olympics for a few years.
Of course the real incentive is for politicians and bureaucrats to avoid the embarrassment of famous athletes boycotting their games at the Olympic Stadium because their looting is so out of control. The State cannot bear to be mocked.
the anniversary of the Olympic opening ceremony
Bread and circuses.
it is the way to sooth the masses of the empire Peter. Distraction…. bring on the games.
This is what happens when ‘tax incentives’ are provided:
http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/1169239/Charity-Commission-defends-its-handling-Cup-Trust-case/
- The Charity Commission has defended its decision not to take action against the Cup Trust, the charity that spent just £55,000 of the £176.5m it raised over two years on good causes. -
What happened here is that certain ‘philanthropists’ gave £176 million to this fake charity for it to claim back from Revenue and Customs the notional tax paid, this being £66 million, from the scam called Gift Aid. The £66 million was pocketed by the ‘philanthropists’ and if the Cup Trust did not pass the money raised on to real charities, what did they do with the initial £176 million? Well they invested it in buying £176.3m worth of government bonds – more than 99% of the total amount raised (by “benevolent” donors) that they then sold for just £17,000 to these same ‘philanthropists’. That is not a typo, £17,000 is what the bonds were sold for.
Now one reads that the investigation has been stopped – who has such power?